Who is Xavier Becerra? California Attorney General Responds to Trump in Spanish

Xavier Becerra, California's top law enforcement official, struck an optimistic tone Tuesday night in his Spanish-language rebuttal to President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, leaning heavily on his family’s immigration story as he urged U.S. Latinos to turn out to vote in 2020.

"Your vote in November changed the votes in Congress,” said Becerra, the former 12-term U.S. House member who is also the state's first Latino attorney general. “Now that you see your power, are you ready to open new doors? Doesn’t it seem to you that it’s now time that we and our government build schools, not walls?”

Becerra in his brief address gave Democrats credit for blocking Trump’s proposed border wall, which led in December to a 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest such closure in U.S. history. Becerra said the Trump administration has sowed confusion, hostility and disorder.

Becerra, 61, has quickly emerged as a top Trump administration adversary since being appointed in 2017. His office has filed at least 45 lawsuits against Trump policies related to immigration, energy policy and the controversial immigration-status question proposed for the 2020 U.S. Census.

President Donald J. Trump (C) delivers the State of the Union address, with Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C, February 5, 2019.(Photo11: Doug Mills / POOL, EPA-EFE)

Trump’s State of the Union address came after a bitter showdown with congressional Democrats, which ended after Trump eventually relented as the costs of the government shutdown cascaded. He has threatened another shutdown, however, if Congress does not provide funding ahead of his Feb. 15 deadline.

Trump on Tuesday again urged Congress to approve funding for the border wall, painting an ominous picture of the impact of illegal immigration. He warned that another migrant caravan is once again making the trek through Mexico to the U.S. border, calling it a “tremendous onslaught.”

He also claimed illegal immigration was disproportionately affecting working-class Americans who “are left to pay the price” while “wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind gates and walls and guards.”

Becerra, who spoke from his alma mater, C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento, said Democrats are willing to debate comprehensive immigration reform, but he vowed that Democrats would fight any effort by the president to issue an emergency declaration to fund his wall, as Trump has threatened.

“Not only is it immoral, it’s illegal,” Becerra said. “We are prepared to reject this foolish proposal.”

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tapped Becerra to give the Spanish-language response. The Democratic leaders also chose former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to give the English-language response to Trump's national address.

In a statement, Schumer said Becerra "embodies the promise of America," while Pelosi praised him as "a towering champion of equal justice and a tireless fighter for every American’s right to quality, affordable health care."

Becerra, who once was the highest-ranking Latino in Congress, left Congress to become the state’s attorney general after Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016. Becerra often touts his biography in explaining why he has made it his mission to defend the rights of immigrants. His mother is an immigrant from Guadalajara, Mexico, who married his father, a U.S. citizen, who often traveled between the U.S. and Mexico.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra discusses various issues during an interview with The Associated Press, in Sacramento, California, Oct. 10, 2018. Becerra, California’s top prosecutor, has been among the most aggressive of the Democratic state attorneys general who have fought President Donald Trump in court.(Photo11: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)

“I am the son of working-class immigrants,” Becerra said Tuesday. “My parents started their lives here for the same reason many people come to this country.”

In Congress, Becerra served as chair of the House Democratic Caucus and was also the first Latino to serve on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He also served one term in the California Assembly from 1990 to 1992.